Eutherfobd moody and samuel d



TED sTATEs PATENT oEEIcE.

RUTHERFORD MOODY AND SAMUEL D. DAKIN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IIETHOD WORKING A FLOATING- DRY-DOCK IN CONNECTION WITH A PLATFORM AND BASIN BY MEANS OF WHICH VESSELS GAN BE RAISED AND DEPOSITED ON BED OR RAIL WAYS, &o.

Speccation of Letters Patent No.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that we, RUTHEREORD MOOD-Y and SAMUEL D. DAEIN, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and improved method of providing a basin and platform to receive a sectional or any other floating dry-dock to be used in connection with horizontal bedways and sliding ways for hauling out ships and delivering them into the water; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description.

The nature of our invention consists in providing a basin sufficiently large to receive the dock with a vessel upon it and to enable the dock to turn around within it if it is desired, with a platform in its bottom made perfectly level and low enough to admit the water to flow over it at any desired depth; the side walls of the basin to be constructed of timber or stone `or other masonry in the usual manner, and the platform to be made of concrete or stone or other masonry laid upon the earth, or of piles of timber driven into the earth and capped with other timbers framed across their tops with a plank flooring covered with concrete or stone or other masonry. y

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use our invention, we will proceed to describe its construction and operation more definitely.

Ve construct a wharf or bulkhead in the usual form, with surfaces graded to a level and represented in the annexed drawing at A. `We excavate a basin into the shore or in shallow water (or we form it in deep water) to the requisite depth to receive the floating dock with a vessel on it and allow it to float; which basin is represented at B. Its side walls are laid in stone or other masonry or formed of timbers and are rep resented at O. In the bottom of this basin or at the requisite depth within it, say twelve feet, more orless, according to the size and draft of water of the dock to be used, we construct a perfectly level platform of concrete, or of stone or other masonry laid upon the earth or of piles of timber driven into the earth .with capping timbers running across their heads and framed thereon and with a flooring of plank covered with concrete or stone or other masonry, represented at O. 7e construct upon the shore level or horizontal bedways or railways with slid- 3,351, dated November 2li, 1843.

ing ways to match, represented at E, one or more, running to the edge of the basin and extending back the requisite distance and we construct upon the floating dock F (see Figure 2 sectional view) bedways or railways corresponding therewith, upon which t-he vessel may be drawn off from the dock and hauled upon the shore by any mechanical power; and the dock is floated into deep water and sunk to receive the vessel; when the dock is raised with a vessel on it and is brought into the basin,it floats and may be made to turn and point in any given direction toward either of the sides of the basin, and, upon water being let into its tanks, it will settle and rest upon the platform aforesaid, and in the direction of, and in connection with, any one of the bedways or railways on the shore that the operator may desire; and when it so rests, the platform affords a solid and firm foundation for the dock, enabling it to receive and sustain a firm temporary bedway or railway to act in connection with those on shore. The'vessel is to be furnished with a cradle of timbers, to which the sliding ways fitted to move over the bedways or railways are to be firmly attached; or the sliding ways may be made to move over wheels or friction rollers.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is The employment in combination with a floating dry dock, of a level or horizontal platform under water in a basin made of concrete, masonry or piles or in any other manner to receive a floating dry dock and allow it to float and turn in the basin and to settle and rest on the platform in any required direction, in connection if desired with bedways or railways upon the shore; the basin to be so shallow compared with the water in which the dock is sunk to receive the vessel, as to receive and form a bed for the said dock and leave the cradle on which the vessel rests, level with the bed or railways on the edge of the basin, as herein described, using for that purpose any materials or form of construction which may produce the intended effect.

RUTHERFORD MOODY. S. D. DAKIN. Witnesses:

OHAs. Gr. PAGE, HENRY STONE. 

